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www.augi.com
Mar/Apr 2003
• We Got Game!Third-party Developers Strive for ProductCertification from Autodesk
• The Best of the AUGI Guilds
Meet JohnClauson AUGI’s NewPresident
©2002 NVIDIA Corporation. Time Machine Demo image © 2002 NVIDIA Corporation. The PNY logo is a registered trademark of PNY TECHNOLOGIES, Inc. Other company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of therespective owners with which they are associated. All rights reserved.
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columns4 Augiworld News
6 The CAD Manager
12 A Conversation with John Clauson,AUGI President, 2003
16 Leveling the Field
18 The Best of the Guilds
20 PaperSpace• VBA Foundations• AutoLISP: Not an ‘All Or
Nothing’Choice• Manipulating AutoCAD Objects
with AutoLISP• Command Spotlight/Hint
28 Back in the Day
Table ofContents
w w w . a u g i . c o m2
EditorialManaging EditorMarilyn [email protected]
Technical Editor/PaperSpace EditorJohn [email protected]
Contributing EditorsRobert BellRichard L. BinningBeth GarrisonBobby JonesSanjay KulkarniElise MossAlireza ParsaiMike PerryDonnia Tabor-HansonHarry Ward
ProductionTim Varnau [email protected]
CirculationScott [email protected]
AdvertisingDan [email protected]
ControllerLarry [email protected]
PublisherRich [email protected]
AUGI Board of Directors, 2003John Clauson, President
R. Yoshi Honda, Sr. Vice President
David Kingsley, Secretary
Marv Muston, Jr. Vice President
Michael DeGraw
Beth Garrison
Peter Jamtgaard
Chris Lindner
John Moran
Elise Moss
Augiworld is a trademark of Autodesk User Group International(AUGI) www.augi.com. Autodesk is a registered trademark ofAutodesk, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All otherbrand names, product names, or trademarks belong to theirrespective holders. Augiworld is published by Solidvapor, Inc.,19601 James Road, Noblesville, IN 46060.
Canadian Publications Agreement # 40733013
BPA International membership applied for August 2002.
© Copyright 2003 Solidvapor, Inc. All rights reserved.
8
feature
AutodeskInventor R6Standout Features
AugiworldNews
Praise for AutodeskUniversity
With record-setting attendance and top-quality educational sessions and work-shops, Autodesk University 2002 was anunqualified success. “It was the best AUever, without question,” asserts JohnClauson, AUGI president. “The lineup ofcourses and instructors was top shelf, aswere the facilities and food. The exhibithall had the best layout and organizationthat I’ve seen, and I’ve participated in a huge number of them as both visitorand exhibitor.
“Those good things don’t happen with-out careful planning by experienced andtalented people who are dedicated to qual-ity,” continues Clauson. “My hat is off tothe event coordinators and everyone elseinvolved in producing AU 2002. They def-initely raised the bar.”
The 2002 Autodesk University markedthe 10th anniversary of this event.
New Board on BoardWe welcome AUGI’s new board mem-
bers: Michael DeGraw, Chris Lindner, andJohn Moran.
Michael DeGraw is director of CADsoftware development for The FreemanCompanies, a full service trade show general contractor.
Chris Lindner, owner of onebutton cadsolutions, provides consulting, training,and programming services to theAutoCAD community.
John Moran is associate technical fellowfor The Boeing Company, Washington.
The 2003 AUGI Board of DirectorsJohn Clauson, PresidentR. Yoshi Honda, Sr. Vice PresidentDavid Kingsley, SecretaryMarv Muston, Jr. Vice PresidentMIchael DeGrawBeth GarrisonPeter JamtgaardChris LindnerJohn MoranElise Moss
Chris Lindner Is the Top DAUG
Chris Lindner took first place in the2002 Top DAUG competition, held atAutodesk University.
This contest, open to all AU attendees,was created to test participant’s knowledgeand skills in AutoCAD. Hewlett Packardwas the exclusive sponsor of the TopDAUG Competition.
The first stage of the competition was amultiple-choice test of AutoCAD knowl-edge. Questions covered areas such asDraw, Edit, and Display Commands,Plotting, Paper Space (Layout), ExternalReference, Customization Knowledge,and AutoLISP knowledge, as well as gen-eral AutoCAD questions.
Contestants with the top 10 scoresentered the second stage of competition –an AutoCAD 2002 drawing exam.
Lindner’s first-place finish won him anHP digital camera, an AUGI backpack, anAUGI mug, and NFR software of choicefrom Autodesk. Lindner, an AutoCADuser since 1985, is the owner of onebuttoncad solutions (www.onebuttoncad.com), aconsulting company providing training and programming services for theAutoCAD industry.
Second place honors went to JosephGlick, Clark County Public Works,Nevada. Glick won an NFR copy of
AutoCAD, an AUGI Backpack, and anAUGI mug.
Greg Silva of ATS/Express LLC, Tulsa,Oklahoma, took third place, winning anNFR copy of AutoCAD LT, an AUGIBackpack, and an AUGI mug.
Congratulations to all the winners!
AUGI Membership Is UpIn December, more than 1,200 new
AUGI members were welcomed into the organization.
AUGI ExchangeA new service has been introduced at
AUGI.com. The AUGI Exchange is a data-base-driven freeware, symbol, and text file upload/download system. AMD(Advanced Micro Devices) is the exclusivesponsor of the AUGI Exchange.
The AUGI Exchange grew out of adesire to archive the wealth of knowledgegenerated by members of the AUGI Guildsystem. AUGI Exchange enables users toshare useful routines, symbols, andinformative papers. AUGI members cansearch for and download submissions fromfellow AUGI members.
More information about AUGIExchange can be obtained fromwww.augi.com/empower/exchange.
ATP Signups BeginAUGI members have the entire month of
March to sign up for classes offered in theATP Spring semester. A Student RegistrationForm has been posted to the website thismonth. Registrations will not be acceptedafter March 31st. Go to www.augi.com/education/atp for more information.
w w w . a u g i . c o m4
Yoshi Honda from AUGI (left) and Tom Salomonefrom Hewlett-Packard (right), congratulate AUGITop DAUG winner Chris Lindner. Chris won an HPdigital camera and additional prizes at AutodeskUniversity 2002.
Yoshi Honda, AUGI and Dawn Rintala, AdvancedMicro Devices (AMD) —AMD is the exclusivesponsor of AUGI Exchange
The Cad
w w w . a u g i . c o m6
⟩⟩ ROI for Newbie CAD Managers
Bean counters don’t like invisible beans.Small wonder. You might have troubleconvincing one to invest in a beanstalk bydescribing the nutritional value of the beans instead of predicting how many beans it will actually yield in threemonths. After all, that person was hired tocount beans.
You know this is true if you’ve ever triedto convince a tight-fisted boss to purchasesomething you’re convinced will absolute-ly increase productivity without havinghard numbers in your sales pitch. It’s likeasking for a raise based on your winningsmile and exemplary posture. If you’re newto CAD management, take my word for it:your money manager is convinced thatevery one of your requests is frivolous.Learn to back up purchase requisitionswith ROI statements that illustrate returnson investment and you’ll be delighted athow many are approved.
According to Clive Shepherd at FastrakConsulting Ltd., one way of looking atROI, “is to calculate how many months itwill take before the benefits of the [purchased item] match the costs, and the [purchased item] pays for itself. This is called the payback period: payback period = costs / monthly benefits.”Payback calculations, if properly done,may amaze even you when you see howdramatic the results may be.
Any savvy business person will tell youthat people are the most expensive andimportant asset in their companies.Managers, however, may lose track of theconnection between old equipment andthe squandering of their employees’ time.Good payback ROI calculations can helpdrive that point home and get approval ofyour requests.
To help you get a grip on this process,I’ve enlisted the aid of two hardware ven-dors to provide actual tools you can use,and will pass along some strategies fromsome of my wizened CAD managerfriends. Together we’ll give you some tips
on doing ROI presentations for auxiliaryhardware and training, which are two ofthe more difficult “sells.” For additionalgeneral information on ROI calculations,see Robert Green’s article at http://poin-ta.autodesk.com/local/enu/portal/Articles/article.jsp?articleId=1802.
Knowing the actual cost of an employeecan make or break your ROI calculations.In addition to the salary or hourly wage,there are many other costs that you mightnot otherwise consider. The most commonwage of those who responded to the salarysurvey in the last issue of Augiworld was
about $20 per hour. With benefits, insur-ances, and other factors, those people maycost their companies $25 to $35 per houror more. Ask one of your accounting peo-ple for rough hourly overall costs of thepeople who will be using the new equip-ment or attending the training. Thusarmed, you can begin your calculationswith indisputable facts.
Here’s how one CAD manager justifiedthe cost of a 21-inch monitor for a drafterwho had been using a 17-inch unit. Themanager conservatively estimated that thelarger monitor would reduce the amountof time spent zooming and panning byabout 5 percent, or 24 minutes a day. At anoverall burdened hourly cost of $30 for the
drafter, that came to a cost saving of $12per day. It would then take 50 work days tobreak even on the cost of the $600 moni-tor. More importantly, the $12 per day sav-ings projected over a work year of 250 dayscame to an additional $3,000 savings basedon a $600 investment. That is a goodreturn, indeed.
ROI for the Matrox Parheliagraphics card
Alain Thiffault, product manager for theParhelia card, showed me a triple monitorsetup at Autodesk University 2002. Whilebecoming immediately hooked on the cardand the possibilities of using such a setupin my Autodesk Inventor and MechanicalDesktop environment, I mused about try-ing to sell the concept to upper manage-ment. Alain reminded me of the lost timeand concentration involved in scrolling,managing toolbars and menus, switchingbetween application windows, and so on.
Alain was kind enough to provide a sup-plementary article that describes the ben-efits of the Parhelia card and multiplemonitors, as well as some good ROI calcu-lations that illustrate a potential cost sav-ings of $11,000 per year for a CAD design-er using that Matrox technology. Entitled“Multi monitor ROI.doc,” it is available fordownload at http://www.augi.com/edu-cate/publications/paperspace/psdown-load.asp. In it you will also find several tes-timonials and other pertinent information.
You can get Matrox graphics card prod-uct information at www.matrox.com/mga,and technical info by emailing [email protected]. You can also contactAlain at [email protected].
ROI for motion controldevices by 3Dconnexion
3Dconnexion, a Logitech company with headquarters in Silicon Valley, manu-factures the well-known SpaceBall,SpaceMouse, and CadMan motion con-trollers and other related devices. Whiledoing some beta testing for them on theirnew SpaceNavigator, I chatted with PratishShah, their director of partner marketing
John Clauson
Manager
about this article. As a marketer of devicesthat some managers would consider auxil-iary in nature, he is well aware of the valueof solid, believable ROI calculations.
Pratish provided an Excel spreadsheetthat calculates the payback of 3Dconnexiondevices based on the burdened cost of adesigner, the number of hours per day ofuse and the particular device used. Pratishexplains, “The spreadsheet takes the inputdata and assumes a conservative 5 to 10percent productivity gain across multipletasks and then calculates the number ofcalendar months it takes to recoup the listprice cost on our motion controller. Thisrecouped cost is based on a simple calcula-tion of how much the designer costs to per-form the task and how much we are savingon the cost of the designer.”
You can see a cool video of 3Dconnexionmotion controllers working with Inventorat http://www.3dconnexion.com/applica-tions/inventor/ and contact them for infor-mation at [email protected] video contains great visual as well asnumeric ROI information. The spread-sheet is available for download athttp://www.augi.com/educate/publica-tions/paperspace/psdownload.asp.
TrainingTraining may be the ultimate invisible
bean, mainly because the results vary wide-ly and can be so difficult to quantify. Themoney manager will want to know howmuch time will be saved by the proposedtraining, but how can you know?Productivity gains via training may bemasked or diluted by so many other condi-tions. In a recent National HumanResources Development Executive Survey,55 percent of respondents said their biggestchallenge was “determining the impact oftraining on financial performance.”
Frankly, good numerical solutions to thatdilemma are beyond the scope of this article,but you may still be able to use the paybackformula if you can make certain assumptions.
Let’s go back to that burdened cost of $30per hour for a drafter. How long would it taketo make a $1,000 training class for that personpay for itself? If the class saved one hour a dayfor the first 30 days (not too hard to imagine),it would constitute a 90 percent payback. Inmy experience, I’ve seen untrained peoplefloundering about for days until they began toget a grip on things, and many continued topractice very unproductive habits that wastedtime and money day in and day out.
You might also be able to generate sometraining ROI numbers for some of theconditions that training helps avoid: errors,unnecessary repetition, and poor qualityamong others. How much did that pile ofscrap on the shop floor cost? In my ownformer manufacturing business, I foundthat scrap-producing errors by untrainedstaff could, in a sense, triple my costs on ajob. First, the initial time and material waslost. Then the second round of time andmaterial costs to do the job right could notbe devoted to doing profitable work, thusreducing my income potential by thatamount. I was not amused.
Stick with the numbersHopefully you’ve now seen a few ways to
validate your purchase requests by sup-porting them with ROI calculations. Whendealing with money managers, you have tohave numbers they understand. You’llimprove your chances of getting that greathardware or software if you can make yourbeans visible.
John Clauson is CAD Manager at IndakManufacturing Corporation and Presidentof AUGI.
M a r / A p r 2 0 0 3 7
AutodeskInventorR6
⟩⟩ Autodesk shippedthe newest release ofAutodesk Inventor inOctober 2002. Here,author Elise Moss discusses three majornew features in thelatest release
StandoutFeatures
Draw a circle with thecenter point at the ori-gin. Add a 14 mm diam-eter dimension.
Double click on the dimension.
Right click in theedit field. In theshort cut menu,select ‘Tolerance’.
The dimension nowindicates the toleranceapplied.
Set the Precision to 0.Set the Tolerance Type to Symmetric.Set the Upper value to 0.400.
For example, lookat the R.060 dimen-sion. This dimensionhas three decimalplaces. That meansthat the tolerance forthree decimal places would be applied tothis dimension. In the dialog, the toler-ance for three decimal places is set to0.003. This would mean that the dimen-sion in question would have an upper limitor 0.063 and a lower limit of 0.057.
Tolerancing
To check your tolerancing, set theEvaluated Size to Maximum on each partand then use Tools→Analyze Interferenceto check for interference. Likewise, set theEvaluated Size to Minimum and see howyour parts fit together.
Designers can use the new tolerancingfeature inside of Autodesk Inventor to gaina better understanding of how tolerancesaffect the fit and function of a design.
M a r / A p r 2 0 0 3 9
The Release 6 of Autodesk Inventorincludes more than 200 new features andenhancements. In the interest of space, Iwill highlight my favorite three new fea-tures: Tolerancing, Custom Toolbars, andThicken/Offset Surface.
Users can now apply toler-ances to features of size. Youcan check for interferencefit, clearance fit, tolerancestack-up, and positional
errors. I do not recommend using this fea-ture unless you have a good understandingof tolerancing or you will quickly get frus-trated. However, if you know how to applytolerances, you can use this tool to checkyour design and save your company thou-sands of dollars with the ability to “proveyour design” on the computer, instead ofin the machine shop.
You can set up a tolerance standard inyour Document Settings that can beapplied to all designs. A good rule ofthumb is to use the same standard as you declare in the title block of your company documents.Autodesk Inventor can then automaticallyapply this to all dimensions.
Go to Tools→Document Settings.
The note you seehere is common inindustry. When youset up your defaulttolerance, you areapplying the sametolerance specification as you would havein your drawing.
Set the defaulttolerance for angu-lar dimensions inthe dialog. Press ‘Apply’ and ‘OK’.
If you enable the Export StandardTolerance Values, the tolerance values willappear on dimensions used in drawing views.
(These are your horizontal, vertical,aligned, diameter, and radial dimensions.)Select the Precision or decimal places youwant to control. Then set the tolerance forthat precision level.
The default tolerance to be applied isbased on the precision of the dimension.
So a good rule of thumb is to look at thetolerance notes in your company docu-ments and use those to set the default tol-erances in your standard template.
Click in the area under Linear to set upthe tolerances for linear dimensions.
Under Evaluated Size, you see three buttons.
Indicates the model is at the maximum limit.
Indicates the model is at thenominal dimension.
Indicates the model is at the minimum limit.
Press ‘OK’.
w w w . a u g i . c o m10
Autodesk Inventor users have been asking forthis feature since Release 1. As AutoCAD users, wegrew accustomed to being able to set up our owntoolbars with our favorite tools. By creating ourown toolbars, we can maximize our screen realestate and still have our favorite tools ready andavailable at all times.
Custom Toolbars
Your toolbar should look similar to the one shown.
Autodesk Inventor also gives you the ability to export and save your custom toolbars, so you can takethem with you on a zip or floppy if you change jobs or workstations.
Go to Tools→Customize.
Select the Toolbars tab.Highlight Inventor Standard.Select ‘Copy’.
So far the custom toolbar has only four tools:New file, open, undo, and redo.
You can move icons around your toolbar to organizethem by dragging and dropping, just as you can in AutoCAD.
Highlight the DisplayCategory.
Move the following iconsonto your custom toolbar:Zoom AllZoom WindowZoom DynamicPanRotateLook AtShaded DisplayReturn
Select the Commands tab.Highlight the Management category.
Drag and drop thefollowing onto yourcustom toolbar.CutCopy PastePrintSaveSelect SketchUpdate
Name your toolbar ‘My Standard’.Press ‘OK’.
Locate the My Standard toolbar in the list.Highlight and select ‘Show’.
M a r / A p r 2 0 0 3 11
Elise Moss has workedfor the past twentyyears as a mechanicaldesigner in SiliconValley, primarily creat-ing sheet metaldesigns. She has writ-
ten articles for Autodesk’s Toplinesmagazine, AUGI’s PaperSpace,DigitalCAD.com, and Tenlinks.com. Sheis President of Moss Designs, creatingcustom applications and designs forcorporate clients. She has taught CADclasses at DeAnza College, SiliconValley College, Evergreen ValleyCollege, and for Autodesk resellers.Autodesk has named her as a Facultyof Distinction for the curriculum shehas developed for Autodesk products.She can be contacted via email [email protected]. Moreinformation about the author and herwork can be found on her website atwww.mossdesigns.com.
This tool may not have the pizzazz of theother two tools I have discussed, but I findmyself relying on it heavily in my designwork. It basically allows you to go fromthose boxy designs you were constrained toin Mechanical Desktop and really explorenew levels, especially in plastic design.
An example of how I use it: Let’s say Ihave a cylindrical part and I want to placea small circular indentation onto the cylin-
der to place a label. How do I get theExtrude to have the same depth allaround? I can offset the cylinder face as a surface and then extrude to the offset surface. Or I need to shell a revolveon a complex part, but I only want to shell the revolve, not the entire part. I can create an offset surface of the revolve and then revolve or sweep a cut tothe offset surface.
About the Author
Select the outsideface of the cylin-drical face to offseta surface.
Other features you may want to checkout are the new Decal, Text, Emboss, Loftwith Rails, new spline controls, and theimproved 3D Sketch tools.
Extrude a Cut to the offset surface.
A perfect cutevery time!
Offset/Thicken Surface
w w w . a u g i . c o m12
AW: What are the goals you hope toachieve during your term as president?
Clauson: I think there are two sets ofgoals. First, there are the traditional goalsof all AUGI presidents: to improve theprofessionalism of the organization,increase the financial stability, firm up andimprove existing programs, improve andmodify the infrastructure as demandschange, and increase the internationaliza-tion of the organization.
One of the specific things I want to dothis year, as I said in my address atAutodesk University, is to give our mem-bership more visibility and leverage in themarketplace. We want both software andhardware vendors to recognize the AUGImembership as a prequalified group thathas an unusual level of expertise and skillsets. We can aid vendors and manufactur-ers in improving their products becausewe are the people who use them.
We also want to increase involvementon the international side. Eventually, wewould like to have at least one of the boardmembers be from outside the U.S. Wewant to increase the involvement of thosepeople outside the U.S. as well as increasetheir numbers. That’s going to be a prettychallenging thing to do.
We’ve begun by introducing non-English AUGI Guilds and by translatingsome of the ATP [AUGI TrainingProgram] classes to other languages. Wewould like to have ATP courses taught,natively, in other languages in the future.Maybe not this year, but possibly next year,we would like to explore having regionaluser group meetings outside the U.S.Some of this will occur further down theroad, but these are things we’ve talkedabout. But we must increase AUGI’s visi-bility among non-U.S. customers and usersof Autodesk products so they know whowe are and what services we offer.
AW: Is the fundamental problem sim-ply that they don’t know what AUGI is orwhat it’s about, or is AUGI too “NorthAmerican” to appeal to them?
Clauson: I would say it’s both.Although we’ve had the word“International” in our name for a longtime, the perception and the reality is thatwe’ve tended to be too U.S.-centric.Because most of the very active AUGIpeople are in the U.S. and we haven’t hadways — because of the language barrierand other cultural issues — to deeplyinvolve non-U.S. people in the process.Those are the kinds of hurdles we’re tryingto surmount right now.
AW: Is it possible to include everyoneunder a big umbrella or, because of thelanguage and cultural issues you noted,will you need satellite user groups?
Clauson: Satellite groups withinAUGI could be one of the possibilities.The core success of internationalizing willbe in finding people as active as ourselvesin other countries who are willing to repli-cate our efforts — to do the kinds of thingswe do here. That will be a big challenge.We know that people in other countrieshave at least as much skill, dedication, andenthusiasm as we have. So it’s a matter offinding those people and helping them get started.
AW: Can you tell me what steps you’vetaken to address this goal or find thesenon-U.S. people?
Clauson: We have created what we onthe AUGI Board call a new “bucket” —that’s a project for which a board membertakes responsibility — called InternationalDevelopment Coordinator. That person isBeth Garrison. Beth will be doing the initiallegwork, developing contacts in other coun-tries, finding out where there are strong
A Conversation with
John ClausonAUGI President, 2003
⟩⟩ Growth is good! AUGI’s swellingmembership is welcome news toAUGI’s Board of Directors and thededicated volunteers who makethat organization work, but is alsothe cause of a few challenges.Thenew year kicks off with JohnClauson at the AUGI helm. In this Q&A, John sums up AUGI’sgoals — which include encourag-ing involvement from those out-side of North America — and discusses the hurdles to be cleared
M a r / A p r 2 0 0 3 13
user groups, and discussing with them whatthey would like to do and how we can helpthem. We want to make people outside ourshores aware of our existing services — theGuilds, ATP, and AUGI Exchange — andthen see what we can do beyond that.
AW: Let’s go back to some of your otherpoints. You said you wanted to improve theprofessionalism.
Clauson: Yes. AUGI, like most of thelocal user groups, started with a bunch oftechies getting together and doing coolthings and sharing knowledge in a veryinformal way. Now that we’ve reachedsuch large membership numbers and ourgrowth is still continuing at such highrates, that model won’t work anymore.
The past two presidents have takengreat steps to transform AUGI to a morebusiness-like model since we became afree-standing corporation. We have budg-ets and a board of directors and a growingpool of volunteers and we’re learning howto spread the workload out amongst morepeople, and those things call for manage-ment skills. The core of AUGI is the Boardof Directors, and together with our volun-teers we must act more as managers thanwe ever have before.
Aperson may have gotteninvolved in AUGI becausethey liked to customizeAutoCAD, but as that per-son rises through the volun-
teer ranks, he or she has to do more andmore of other kinds of things and less andless of their initial activity, which is typicalof anyone who formalizes a businessaround a skill that they have. You wind uprunning the business and finding otherpeople to do the thing you enjoyed.
AW: You mentioned AUGI’s programsin your group of goals. Is your goal toenhance existing programs, to create newprograms, or both?
Clauson: We have to do both. Forexample, we recently had somewhat of acrisis in the Guild system, where we werethe victims of our own success. The numbers of members and the traffic in theGuild system had increased to the pointwhere our current service provider couldn’t handle it. Unfortunately, Guildmessages were taking a very long time toget disseminated to the various Guilds.While that’s a good problem to have in away, we had to find a provider that couldhandle the volume.
We found a new provider, tested them,and we’re now in the process of moving
various Guilds under the new serviceprovider. The access time has improveddramatically and it looks as though thisnew provider will work out well for thetime being.
AW: Any other existing programs you’dlike to improve?
Clauson: The AUGI Wish List isanother area we’d like to expand. Autodeskwould like for us to have wish lists for all ofits products. There are also some internalthings Autodesk would like to do with theWish List, so that’s going to be an evolvingproject for some time.
AW: Do you think that there’s a percep-tion that AUGI is just an AutoCAD group?
Clauson: Sure, but that shouldn’t bethe perception of anyone who has everlooked at us closely. Every Autodesk prod-uct is represented to some extent in ouruser base. The Inventor and Revit portionsof our membership are among the mostvibrant — that’s where the excitement isright now.
AW: The last goal you mentioned, tomodify infrastructure. What do you haveplanned there?
Clauson: We have to keep changingthe infrastructure to meet demands. Forthe last two years, we’ve had one part-timestaff member working on the web. Wehave to get more staff members on ourweb team because there will be more forthem to do. We will continue to have toexpand the volunteer team that does trans-lating to other languages. There will bemore demands on those kinds of things.We need to continue to improve or makesome modification in the Guild system tomake it more attractive to members. So wecan’t rest on our laurels in any one area forvery long because the dramatic increasesin our membership, as well as technology,put pressure on us.
AW: What are some of the new AUGI programs or services you wouldlike to mention?
Clauson: First, we’d like everyone tocheck out the AUGI Exchange, a new serv-ice we unveiled at Autodesk University2002. It’s a repository of productivity toolsthat are created and shared by AUGImembers. It contains program routines,menu snippets, symbols, papers, and avariety of other items that our membersuse to make their work easier. I believe theExchange will become a resource that allmembers would want to use regularly.
We like to have some fun, too. AtAutodesk University 2002, attendees hadthe opportunity to participate in our firstTop DAUG contest. It is a test ofAutoCAD skills and knowledge that weplan to offer annually. Chris Lindner wonit this year, so he has the bragging rightsuntil AU 2003.
It’s a bit early for discussing other newprograms, but we’ve kicked around a fewideas. For instance, there has been discus-sion for some time about putting theAUGI Guilds on the Internet, where theywould function as private discussiongroups. As such, the traffic would bearchived and would be searchable, thus becoming a gold mine of supportinformation. Before taking such a step,we’d have to find out from our memberswhether they think it would be a goodidea, since we know that at least some por-tion of our membership has e-mail but notInternet access.
We want to be deliberate about startingnew programs, being sure that they have value for a large number of ourmembers and can be developed and maintained properly.
AW: What, in your opinion, are themajor strengths and weaknesses of AUGI?
Clauson: Well, some of our strengthsare also our weaknesses. We talked aboutthe knowledge and expertise of our mem-bers and the qualifications they have asexperts in this particular field. However,we are a free-standing organization madeup of incredibly dedicated volunteersalready. And we know we will have more.But there’s only so much we can ask of ourvolunteers. Our Board of Directors isunpaid. We have two part-time staff posi-tions in our entire organization. We areasking a lot of our volunteers. Two yearsago, we had 5,000 members and 10 boardmembers. Today we have 40,000 membersand 10 board members. As those numbersincrease, there’s going to be more andmore work to do. The new programs thatwe have instituted, as well as future ones,will take more effort on someone’s part. Sofinding the people to conduct these pro-grams and activities will be one of ourbiggest challenges.
But the volunteer aspect is also ourstrength because we are not beholding toanyone. People are here because they wantto be; they’re not just putting in their time,like some employees do. Volunteerism is amajor factor in our credibility, too. It’s astrength and weakness at the same time –and the very nature of the organization.
AW: Do you find that you act as a cheer-leader, of sorts, at your own company? Doyou recruit from among the employees?
Clauson: Yes, I do to some extent. Idon’t want to do it to where it brings atten-tion to me as an AUGI board member, butI try to tell people about the services avail-able to them and let them make their owndecision. It wouldn’t be right to try to forcemembership on them. All of us at AUGIare cheerleaders in that sense. You’ll findmany of us, in our regular business activi-ties, will be mentioning AUGI from timeto time and pointing people in that direc-tion, both within our organizations andamong the people we talk to.
AW: How understanding is youremployer, Indak Manufacturing Corp., ofyour involvement in AUGI?
Clauson: Incredibly understanding.I’m very fortunate to have the kind ofinternal support I have at Indak. They real-ize too that my involvement at AUGI hasbenefited the company as well.
AW: Hypothetically speaking, what arethe benefits to the company whoseemployee wants to get more involved withAUGI? Does the fact that an employeemight give input to the Wish List, forexample, which results in an improvedAutodesk product, ultimately benefit theuser’s company?
Clauson: That’s certainly one of thebenefits. The fact that board members andproduct chairs — the two highest levels ofvolunteer we have — deal with Autodeskdirectly. We have a very direct voice withAutodesk and they do listen to us. They valueour input on their products because we arethe people who use them every day. Peoplewho are heavily involved in AUGI wouldhave personal contacts that do indirectly helptheir employers. The recognition of the com-
pany at a place like Autodesk certainly does-n’t hurt anybody and it enables a company tomake its case a little clearer at Autodesk.
For example, my company has a nichefunction — we make a specialized productin a specialized market. We useMechanical Desktop and AutodeskInventor in ways that are somewhat differ-ent than the majority of MechanicalDesktop and Autodesk Inventor users do.So we’ve been able to impart that info tothe Autodesk people we speak to and theyare very interested in hearing our input.Even in casual conversations, they like tohear how we use the product.
AW: What do you say to people whodon’t see a benefit to being part of a localuser group or AUGI?
Clauson: I ask them, “What are youwaiting for?” Membership in both of theseorganizations expands one’s horizons dra-matically. You get to talk to people likeyourself, who have the same problems,issues, and interests. You learn more, youbuild wonderful relationships and friend-ships. And the professional networkingaspect is very important. It’s a great way toenhance your career — to meet other peo-ple in your field.
One of the most shining examples of thisis Christopher Fox. He became a volun-teer author for PaperSpace and now he’s aregular Augiworld author. He’s also authorand co-author of a number of books. He’sbecome a very visible example of howinvolvement with other users can improveone’s career. Another one of our authors isAlireza Parsai, who started out writing forPaperSpace. He has taught three very pop-ular ATP classes and has published a num-ber of articles. He’s become quite note-worthy and popular.
AW: What would you say to people who are active at the local level, but don’t
see a benefit to being part of the largerinternational group?
Clauson: Well, it’s hard to reach thosepeople. We have to get to them through thelocal user group and show them that insteadof being competition, we complement theirofferings. This year we’re going to try to pro-mote 100 percent AUGI membership with-in the local user groups. We’ll do that par-tially through the local user groups andthrough events such as Autodesk University.We’ll also be exhibiting at NDES [NationalDesign Engineering Show] in Chicago laterin March.
AW:How well was AU attended, by the way?
Clauson: Record attendance. A veryinteresting thing to me is that while so farAUGI represents a relatively small percentage of the total Autodesk user baseworldwide, 25 percent of all AU attendeeswere AUGI members. I think it’s noteworthy.It shows a high percentage of the peoplewho were interested enough in trainingand their companies were interestedenough in training to send them to AU areAUGI members.
AW: Did anything surprising come outof Autodesk University, 2002?
Clauson: The standing ovation at theend of our annual meeting at AU was apleasant surprise. We haven’t had that kindof reaction before and it was a real terrificmoment. I think it gave us a sense thatwe’ve accomplished something, that we’regetting the message across and that peopleare starting to see the value of the organi-zation. It was neat to see that our effortshad been appreciated. The traffic at theexhibit booth and the interest that peopleshowed in Augiworld were also extremelyencouraging.
AW: How do you feel about this year?Are you excited, nervous… or do you wishsomeone else had been elected presidentof AUGI?
Clauson: I’m very excited. I’m hum-bled, too, that the organization would havethe confidence in me to let me lead themfor a year. I’m also humbled in the enormi-ty of our mission. I would hope that 12months from now we’ll see that we’vemade progress in the areas we’ve talkedabout here. I would really like to see peo-ple, particularly those in other countries,look back at 2003 as a significant advance-ment in their lives because of their involve-ment with AUGI.
w w w . a u g i . c o m14
About John ClausonJohn Clauson is CAD support manager for Indak Manufacturing,
a Northbrook, Illinois-based manufacturer of switches, resistors,and HVAC control units for the automotive industry.
Clauson began using AutoCAD in 1985 and spent a decade inthe dealer channel, using and training others on numerousother CAD systems. In addition, Clauson has years of experiencewith Autodesk Mechanical Desktop and Autodesk Inventor, twoproducts in use today at Indak.
A member since 1990, and former vice president of the Greater Chicago AutoCADUser Group, Clauson today focuses on AUGI, which he joined in 1996.
Clauson has been a member of AUGI’s Board of Directors since 2000, holding posi-tions such as Junior Vice President and Secretary. He was elected president of AUGI inDecember 2002.
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Since June 2002, when Autodesklaunched the Autodesk Inventor CertifiedApplications Program (AICAP), third-partydevelopers have jumped on the certificationbandwagon. A replacement of sorts forAutodesk’s defunct Mechanical ApplicationsInitiative (MAI) program, which was largelya program for developers of MechanicalDesktop-complementary products, AICAPis considered by developers to be superior toMAI in a number of areas.
The requirements necessary to achieveMAI standards were rigid; the number ofdevelopers accepted relatively few. “MAIwas very, very strict, constrained, and selec-tive,” says John Callen, vice president ofmarketing for Gibbs and Associates,Moorpark, California. “Essentially, it offeredan Autodesk customer a fairly integral solu-tion to their problem. But it turns out that atthe same time, there were a number of goodand capable alternatives out there thatweren’t getting the same exposure or recog-nition.” Gibbs and Associates, a former MAIpartner, develops GibbsCAM, which is nowcertified under AICAP.
There’s no doubt that AICAP makes cer-tification possible for developers of third-party applications that might not have madethe grade in the MAI program. Autodesk’sown Barrett Kamille, solutions development
manager, says that histeam works with alldevelopers to steerthem toward certifica-tion. “We don’t turnanyone away,” hecomments. “But wework with these part-ners to make surethey are meeting the
criteria, that their products work, and so on.We make suggestions on how they canimprove their products. Most often thesesuggestions are taken, and that’s a benefit to everybody.”
Even with this everyone-can-play philoso-phy, Autodesk covets certain types of third-
party applications. “We’realways looking for prod-ucts that extend thevalue of AutodeskInventor, or prod-ucts that are com-pletely integratedwith AutodeskInventor and actuallyadd functionality to it,”Kamille says.
When Autodesk Inventor was firstreleased, Autodesk actively courted devel-opers. “When Autodesk Inventor was in itsinfancy, we had to do a lot of ‘selecting,’”says Kamille. “We approached AutoCADdevelopers and told them about AutodeskInventor. Many of them were excited, butwere hesitant because it was a new product,no one was using it yet, and those develop-ers needed to focus their attention on wheretheir revenue was. In the beginning, we hadto do a lot of push.”
That was then. Now, with AutodeskInventor firmly established as the company’spremier mechanical design solution, third-party developers are willing partners and thenumber seeking — and achieving — certifi-cation for their products continues to grow(see Certified Products chart).
What’s in it for Users?The million-dollar question is: how do
end users benefit from a developer'sinvolvement in AICAP?
Admitting that “every end user is differ-ent,” Autodesk’s Kamille believes that prod-uct certification assures users that a giventhird-party product meets Autodesk stan-dards. “Certification means, to the majorityof users, that Autodesk has taken the time tolook at a partner’s product, because that’swhat this program does — we look at theproduct, we test it, and we certify it andmake sure it does what we think it should bedoing. It lends a much higher level of com-fort when selecting a product,” Kamille says.
Callen of Gibbs and Associates believes
that productcertification throughAICAP enables users to remove oneimportant worry when they are searchingfor a technology solution — that of poten-tial incompatibility between AutodeskInventor and a particular third-party offer-ing. “Autodesk’s certification ensures thatthe products are good partners…that theproducts don’t go in and corrupt yourspace, that they install and deinstall and doit cleanly,” he says. “In effect, what thisprogram has done is protect an aspect thata lot of users would be concerned about,and that is: does this product cohabitatewith Inventor? It removes that from users’‘concern lists’ so they can focus on select-ing the appropriate application for whatthey’re trying to accomplish.”
Users with close ties to Autodesk also ben-efit from Autodesk’s skill at putting peopleand products together for a good-fit solution.Naturally, products that are certified throughAICAP are the ones that will be broughtforth for user consideration. That alone isenough to make certification a must-have forserious third-party developers.
CAD Gems, North Bend, Washington,developer of assembly modeling products, isa relative newcomer to the scene. Its iPCBand iViews products have achieved certifica-tion through AICAP. Erich Nielsen, presi-dent, believes that certification has helpedhis company’s products get noticed. “Thereare customers that would not have beenaware of our products if they had not beencertified,” he asserts.
⟩⟩ The Autodesk Inventor Certified Applications Program assures users
that certain third-party developer solutions “play nicely” with
Autodesk Inventor. It also levels the playing field for developers.
Here’s a look at the program and the players
Leveling the Field
Barrett Kamille
Autodesk’s certification of third-partysolutions may save end users time in thesoftware selection process. John Ferens,spokesperson for ANSYS, Canonsburg,Pennsylvania, notes, “I think the programis a validation on Autodesk’s part as to thequality and usability of the [third-party]software. Without that, a developer probably wouldn’t even be considered out of a list of possibilities.” ANSYS’s certified products are DesignSpace and DesignXplorer.
While Ferens believes that non-certifieddeveloper products could still be discoveredby users, those products would have toundergo a period of testing and certificationby the users themselves — steps that certifi-cation within AICAP automatically does forthem. Would users bother with this, orwould they opt for the “sure thing” offeredby AICAP? The latter is more likely in themajority of cases.
“If a product is not certified, you can besure that [certified] competitors will use thatfact to their advantage. It levels the playingfield while ensuring that the user has morethan one option to choose from in terms ofthe solution their trying to build,” says ToddCummings, director of product developmentfor Synergis Technologies. Synergis,
Q u a k e r t o w n ,Pennsylvania, is the developer of SynergisAdept, a documentmanagement solution.
Ultimately, though,the biggest benefit ofthe Autodesk Inventorcertification programto end users is, poten-
tially, better software solutions. While it istrue that AICAP doesn't impose MAI-likerestrictions on the developers, there remainstrict requirements that developers’ productsmust meet. Autodesk’s Kamille names two ofthe most important: “We want them to useour API we want them to distribute ourlibraries appropriately.”
Often, developers find that their existingproducts already meet the certification cri-teria required by Autodesk, or perhapsrequire only a bit of tweaking. Gaining certi-fication for these products is a relativebreeze. Some developers also approachAutodesk early — in the product designphase — to ensure that certificationrequirements will be met in the end prod-uct. “Some come to us when their product isstill on a whiteboard,” says Autodesk’sKamille. “They haven’t even written a line of
code and they tell us they want it to be a cer-tified product and ask us what to do. Wework with them during their development.These have actually been very successful.”He adds that this team approach benefitsboth parties. “It works out well because thedeveloper points out problems in our APIthat we can fix, and we are able to give thedeveloper suggestions for how to make theirproduct better using our API.”
Certified and Proud of itUsers will be hard-pressed to find a devel-
oper that doesn’t display the AICAP logo on itswebsite and in its marketing literature. And,while most developers admit that they don’tknow to what extent users are even aware ofthe Autodesk Inventor certification program,product certification is nonetheless talked upin sales presentations as a definite plus.
“We use [our certification] extensively; wecertainly display the logo prominently onour website. It’s part of all of the presenta-tions we make to prospects throughout thedecision cycle,” says Synergis’s Cummings,adding, “I think it’s important for users tofeel comfortable that our efforts are alignedwith Autodesk.”
Marilyn Law is managing editor of Augiworld.
M a r / A p r 2 0 0 3 17
Certified ProductsThe following third-party products have achieved certification through the Autodesk Inventor Certified Applications Program as of January 2003.
For more information about these products, contact the developers’ websites.
Todd Cummings
Assembly ModelingProducts
ACAD-Stahl InventorSchäfer Computer GmbHwww.schaefercomputer.comIDF Interface for InventorLatimer-CADwww.latimer-cad.comiPCB and iViewsCAD Gems, Inc.www.cadgems.comPartsNow!Autodesk InventorCadalog, Inc.www.cadalog.comCAD Utilities
ConceptConfigure Onewww.configureone.comhttp://www.cad-symbols.deModularis Software AGwww.modularis.deDocument Management
AutoManager Meridian and AutoManager Teamwork
Cyco Software BVwww.cyco.comCOMPASS 2000 easy and
COMPASS 2000 proAIM Systems GmbHwww.aimsystems.deDBInventorMechworks SRLwww.mechworks.comDesign ManagerCurve Design Solutionswww.curve-design.co.uk
eChange SolutionsEntrada Software, Inc.www.entradasoftware.comeMatrix Integration for
Autodesk InventorThe Van Der Roest Group, Inc.www.vdr.comGAIN EDM SystemGAIN Software GmbHwww.gain.deIDECSAproTec International Limitedwww.aprotec.co.ukSynergis AdeptSynergis Technologies, Inc.www.synergis-adept.comtruElso.View and truEVaulttruEInnovations, Inc.www.trueinnovations.comWeb@PDMLogotec Engineering S.A.www.logotec.com.plWTC ProductCenterWorkgroup Technology
Corporation (WTC)www.workgroup.comDrafting
Genius Inventorweb2CAD AGwww.genius.deElectrical
Inventor/IDF PCB ModelerDesktop EDAwww.desktop-eda.com.au
Engineering Analysis
ALGOR Finite Element Analysis, ALGOR InCAD Designer, and ALGOR Mechanical Event Simulation
ALGOR, Inc.www.algor.comCFdesignBlue Ridge Numerics, Inc.www.cfdesign.comCOSMOS/DesignSTAR for
Autodesk InventorStructural Research &
Analysis Corp.www.cosmosm.comDesignSpace and Design XplorerANSYS, Inc.www.designspace.comMSC.visualNASTRAN 4DMSC Software Corporationwww.mscsoftware.comProof PositiveAvatech Solutions, Inc.www.avatechsolutions.comResinate Materials AnalysisResinate Corporationwww.resinatecorp.comToleranceCalcGeomate Corporation(408) 371-6095Graphic Translators
CADporterElysium Inc.www.elysiuminc.com
VRML Translator for InventorXanadu s.r.o. division CAD Studiowww.cadstudio.czMechanical DesignVisualization
IPA ProfessionalImmersive Design, Inc.www.immersivedesign.comPARTsolutionsCADENAS GmbHwww.cadenas.dePresenterDigital Immersion Software Corp.www.presenter3D.comMotion Analysis
Dynamic Designer Motion Professional
MSC Software Corporationwww.mscsoftware.comMotionInventorSolid Dynamicswww.solid-dynamics.comNC Manufacturing
EdgeCAM Solid Machinist for Inventor
Pathtrace plc.www.edgecam.comESPRITDP Technology Corp.www.dptechnology.comFeatureCAMFeatureCAM – Engineering
Geometry Systemswww.featurecam.comGibbsCAMGibbs and Associateswww.gibbscam.com
Production Engineering
TailorMade ConfiguratorIMAGINiT Technologies –
Rand Worldwidewww.imaginit-tech.comProject and DataManagement Tools
SMARTEAM – IN IntegrationSmarTeam Corporation Ltd.www.smarteam.comSheet Metal Layout
AutoPOL Unfolder for WindowsFCC Software ABwww.fccsoftware.comCOPRA MetalBinder for
Inventor Analyser i and COPRA MetalBinder for Inventor TD i
data M Software GmbHwww.data-m.comradan2002Radan Computational Limitedwww.radan.comSPI – Ducting Inventor and
SPI – Sheetmetal InventorSPI GmbHwww.spi.deTool and Die
InventorPlot65° nord abwww.65nord.seOther Manufacturing
JetStream EAStormMaker Softwarewww.stormmaker.com
Source: Autodesk, Inc.
w w w . a u g i . c o m18
The Best of the Guilds
From AUGI’s LDDT Guild Submitted by Harry Ward, LandDevelopment Desktop Guild Manager
About BlocksQ: I received a drawing, which was con-
verted from Microstation to LDD. Thedrawing contains Point Blocks with attrib-utes (i.e., point number, elevation, descrip-tion, with node location similar to the oldSDSK points but are not actual pointblocks per se — just the info is there).
Is there a program that can read and orreplace these blocks with SDSK pointblocks or Active description keys?
A: If they are just blocks but have attrib-utes, you might try using attribute extrac-tion. The command is eattext. The com-mand brings you into a wizard that extractsattributes from blocks. It is simple to use.You could build an ascii point file to insertwith the information extracted. I havedone this and it is fairly easy.
Another thought is if the blocks have anactual elevation and you only need to builda surface with them, use Terrain modelExplorer under Point Files: Add pointsfrom AutoCAD objects> blocks.
Menu EditingQ: All of a sudden, I have lost my right-
click edit context menus. Now, when Iselect an object and right-click, all I get isthe standard context menu showing theDesign, Desktop, Documentation, etc.selections. I no longer get the edit listingsuch as Edit Entity Display, Modify Door(Window, Wall, etc.), Properties, etc.
What could have caused this?
A: It sounds like the PICKFIRST vari-able is set to 0 instead of 1 like it should be.
Since variables get changed easily, Iadded a button to our company’s customtoolbar that resets a bunch of variables. Itell people that when things start actingdifferent than they are accustomed to, thatthey should click on this button and see ifthat corrects the issue. I have found thatthis helps with most minor issues. Thesyntax for that menu button is below.
These are the variables that we use andyour office might have some different set-tings, especially for EXPERT andPSLTSCALE.
C^C^PHighlight;1;Pickfirst;1;Grips;1;Attreq;1;cmddia;1;filedia;1;dragmod
e;Auto;hideprecision;1;expert;0;pick-add;1;pickauto;1;shademode;2d;psltsc
ale;1;Textfill;1;
Seeking AIA Layers Q: I wonder if I can get a listing of what
AIA layers ADT uses. Is there a file that Ican print with all the property assign-ments? Has anybody compiled this list? Isit available somewhere in the web?
A: Go into Desktop menu, select LayerManagement, then Layer Key Styles. Thisopens up the Style Manager to the LayerKey Styles. In the right pane, double-clickon the desired Layer Key (Standard, AIA-256, etc.). This opens up another dialogbox that has a General tab and a Keys tab.In the Keys tab, highlight any of the layerkeys listed on the left. Right-click andselect Copy All. Start Microsoft Excel (orother spreadsheet) and pick Paste in a newExcel spreadsheet. You can then cancelout of the layer key dialog boxes.
This gives you a listing of all the layerkeys and the properties for the layers likeyou are requesting.
Linking a Word DocQ: Has anybody ever linked a Word
document into a CAD file? I want to havemy room finishes on my floor plan sheet,but I also want to keep them as a Worddocument. I guess this would be sort oflike an xreference.
A: We use the process for the GeneralNotes that we put on our cover sheet (in aLayout - paperspace). The process that weuse is as follows:• Create a Word document with a page size
of 22"x22", using columns in the document.• In AutoCAD or ADT, go to the Insert
menu and choose OLE Object.• In the OLE Object dialog box, choose
“Create from File” then pick the Browse button.
• Browse to the Word document and pickthe Open button.
• In the OLE Object dialog box, place acheckmark next to “Link”.
• The document will probably be very largein size when it comes into AutoCAD.
• Highlight the document, right-click, andpick Properties from the pop-up menu.In the OLE Properties dialog box, go tothe Size area. Change the Height andWidth to the same size as you specifiedin the Page Setup of the Word docu-ment. Having the same size allows youto specify the text font, height, etc. inthe Word document and have it appearthe same way on the final plot. (For the“OLE Plot Quality”, we have it set to “Text”.)
• Pick the OK button of the OLEProperties dialog box.
• Move the OLE Object to the locationthat you desire. If you highlight theOLE Object and right-click, we have“Selectable” and “Bring to Front” check marked.You can now double-click on the OLE
Object to automatically open it in Word tomodify it. You can also have anyone withMicrosoft Word open the document andmodify it. (They don’t have to haveAutoCAD, so an office assistant can dothis.) If you have the “Link” option turnedon as noted above, any changes that aremade to the Word document will be seenthe next time the AutoCAD drawing isopened—similar to xreferences.
You can only display one page of a docu-ment as an OLE Object in AutoCAD, whichis the reason we have the Word page size as22"x22". I believe 22"x22" is the maximumsize in Word. You have to create a new“Custom” paper size in Word for this.
You will need to make sure that the plot-ter is capable of handling OLE Objects.Some old laser printers and old plotters(like the HP 6xx series) aren’t capable ofthis. Also, note that you cannot choose“Plot Upside-Down” in the Plot dialog box.OLE Objects will NOT be rotated.
There is a problem that exists if you useMicrosoft Office XP. Using Office 2000
⟩⟩ Excerpts from the Guilds, AUGI’s online support forums
we can use the 22"x22" size and link it intoADT3.3 just fine, but with Office XP onthe computer that same 22"x22" documentwill be truncated to 15"x15" in ADT3.3 andchop off the other information.
This problem will not have a resolutionuntil the next release of AutoCAD/ADT.
Non-working OsnapsQ: I have a user who tells me that her
Osnaps don’t work, and have never workedon this new computer. As best I can tell,the Osnap itself works, but won’t let herreset it — for instance, it’s on “intersec-tion” but won’t change to “center” no mat-ter what she does.
A: Check the Snapunit variable setting.It might have gotten changed to 0,0. Thisis also shown in the Drafting Settings dia-log box under the Snap and Grid tab. TheSnap X Spacing and Snap Y Spacing valuesmust be greater than 0. (Values shownhere are the SNAPUNIT setting.) It isweird, but having zero settings will causethe Osnap settings to not work.
Deleting Multiple LayersQ: Does anyone know how to delete
multiple layers from a drawing that has 2-3 x-refs with the same layers in each draw-ing? For instance, if I have a layer called“Blue,” it appears at least twice in the finaldrawing because of x-refs. Is there an easyway to get rid of layer “Blue” quickly so Ionly have one layer called “Blue” insteadof two?
A: If I understand what you are asking,the answer is yes. Draw all those BLUEthings in only ONE drawing. Or use MAPto query in only the BLUE things andplace them on a single BLUE layer. If thedata isn’t on a single blue layer, in a singleXRE, then no, you can’t have only one bluexref layer or only one blue layer.
From AUGI’s CAD Manager Guild Submitted by Richard Binning, CADManager Guild Manager
Modifying Radio ButtonsQ: On the “select file” dialog box in
A2Ki, there is a list of “radio” buttons for“history,” “desktop,” “buzzsaw,”“redspark,” etc. (BTW, redspark is out ofbusiness.) Is there a way to modify the“radio” buttons to be what the user wantsthem to be?
A: Manusoft offers freeware that willmake the Buzzsaw, Redspark (out of busi-
ness) and Point A icons removable as well.You’re able to restore them later if youwish. Works for A2K, A2Ki and 3.3.
From AUGI’s VBA Guild Submitted by Robert Bell, VBA Guild Manager
Getting to IE from VBAQ: Can you access Internet Explorer
using VBA?
A: Download EX001183 fromhttp://www.augi.com/empower/exchange/searchdownloads.asp. It’s a function thatopens a URL in IE. You can specify thewindow style. There are also API functionsand scripting in that download.
From AUGI’s AutoCAD Guild Submitted by Mike Perry, AutoCAD Guild Manager
Double-Click DilemmaQ: HELP! Suddenly I cannot change
between floating model space and paper-space by double-clicking.
A: This behavior indicates that theSPACESWITCH variable is set to off, or 0.
To resolve this issue, change theSPACESWITCH system variable value to1. Now you will be able to enter into themodel space by double-clicking the view-port boundary in a layout.
From AUGI’s ADT Guild Submitted by Bobby J. Jones, ADT Guild Manager
Anchor a Room TagQ: I had a room tag anchored to a space.
I released the room tag, deleted the space,and converted a polyline into a space. Iwould like to anchor the tag to the space.Is this the wrong procedure?
A: To anchor a room tag to a space:Autocad menu—>Documentation
—> Schedule Tags—>Anchor Tag to Object
Or from the Command line type:_AecTagAnchorAdd
The Best of the Guilds is compiled by Beth Garrison,AUGI Board Member and newly appointedInternational Development Coordinator.
The Best of the Guilds
M a r / A p r 2 0 0 3 19
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w w w . a u g i . c o m20
All right, I see that you are back formore — just like a kid in a candy store whocan’t get enough. Okay, reach in with bothhands and let’s see what we have now. Inthis issue we will take a look at an oldfriend, the Object Model. “Wait!” you say.“We haven’t worked with the ObjectModel yet!” I just smile and shake myhead. Actually, we have been working withobject models all along! Every time wetype in the editor window and we see the“Intellisense” helper displayed, it isbecause the editor was reading ahead andusing the Object model to assist you inwriting your code.
In previous issues I mentioned the “dotoperator” or the period symbol, which isalso used to access the object model prop-erties or methods of the object in question.The object might be asking, “What aboutme?” Get it? “Me” as in “me.width” or“me.textbox1.text.” In the “Me” exampleswe used an alias, “Me,” to represent thecurrent object and accessing the objectmodel through the alias with the assistanceof the dot operator. It’s all rushing back innow, isn’t it? Now let’s start unwrappingthat candy. In this issue we will discusssome new terms and concepts. In thelonger version, available for download athttp://www.augi.com/educate/publica-tions/paperspace/psdownload.asp, we willalso watch the Object Browser in action,and look at special control structures foruse with object models.
The object model is what makes VBAcustomization possible. A good objectmodel is a keystone because it is themeans by which we will interact withAutoCAD. Therefore, the object modelmust be extendable, easy to use, and asolid representation of the application.Applications expose themselves to VBAthrough this mechanism known as anObject Model. This is actually part ofCOM – Component Object Model.Internet.com defines COM as the tech-nology that “enables programmers todevelop objects that can be accessed byany COM-compliant application.” Let’s
explore this a little deeper by discussingexactly what an “object” is.
We have already used objects in our pre-vious explorations. The form was an objectand the controls were also objects. If wehad to define an object then we mightdescribe it with two parts: an object issomething that is able to save informationor data. An object also offers more than asingle behavior or activity that can eitherexamine or affect the information men-tioned previously. Can you figure out whatinformation the form had? What activity orbehavior did it have?
Let’s think about objects as real worldentities. The next time you drive to work,think about what makes your car an object.What information or properties might your“object” possess? Typical properties ofyour car “object” might include the color,the number of wheels, the number ofdoors, the speed it travels, etc. If you hadto describe the typical activities or behav-iors, you might include driving, turning,starting, stopping, and so on. Cars andtrucks are quite similar when simplifiedand broken down into the parts, pieces,and activities that make an object anobject. Although you might prefer to prac-tice before driving a vehicle you are unfa-miliar with, if push came to shove youcould most likely jump behind the wheel
and drive it successfully, just by using whatyou know and applying it to this “some-what different” object. What about evenmore common objects? Wall switchescome to mind. Do you need to know howa wall switch works? Nope, you just needto flip the switch to the opposite side toeither turn something on or off. What ifthe switch were mounted sideways? Thisresults in the same type of activity, just in adifferent direction.
Hopefully we are now starting to under-stand the cryptic term “object” a little bet-ter. This brings us back to COM. TheComponent Object Model is a collectionof objects and groups of objects that allowVBA to interact with applications. As in thecar example, once you begin to work withan object model and start to understand it,you will find that you also understandother object models as a result. Althougheach car is unique in some way, once youfind out where the switches are, you canoperate the vehicle in much the samemanner as your own car. Trust me when Isay that the COM concept is the same.Once you learn what switches to look for,you’ll be driving virtually any object modelalmost as soon as you sit in the driver’s seat.
Microsoft describes using an objectmodel as exploring the content and func-tionality of the object model. The contentof the object model is the objects or prop-erties it exposes to you. The functionalityof the object model is how you interactwith the objects or properties. Let’s seehow this is represented in AutoCAD’sobject model.
What might the content of the objectmodel be? Thankfully, we don’t have tolook very far or hard to fully understandthis based on our in-depth knowledge ofAutoCAD itself. Let’s list a few of theseand see where it takes us. Probably themost basic content would be the applica-tion itself. Think about what you can do insimple terms with AutoCAD. You canopen and close it. What does the applica-tion work with? “Drawings,” you say?Good answer! What can you do with a
VBA Foundations
PaperSpace
M a r / A p r 2 0 0 3 21
drawing? You can open and close it, plot it,save it, save it as some other name, andpurge it. Those functions that we are sofamiliar with are also activities or methodsof the object model. What might the con-tent or information associated with ourobject model consist of? Perhaps the cap-tion you see at the top of the AutoCADwindow, the drawing’s name itself or theversion. Yes, these and more are the prop-erties or information states available to uswhen we begin exploring the object model.
Now that we have a better understand-ing of what an object is and how objectsare tied into the VBA environment, we canlearn about how it is organized and how tomake use of it. Objects in the object modelare provided in a hierarchical fashion. Ifwe think of an object model in the shape ofa triangle, we might place the most basic(also the most powerful) object at the topand start working our way down. In ourexample we would place the applicationobject, representing AutoCAD itself, atthe top of the triangle. In order to workwith anything inside of AutoCAD, it mustexist first. So what does the applicationcontain? It contains the drawings that canbe opened inside of AutoCAD. Okay, twoobjects taken care of, but what is next?
If we continue down the triangle, youmay notice that the triangle is getting widerthe farther down we go. Looking inside thedrawing itself, we realize that we will findother objects, such as layers, blocks, dic-tionaries, etc. It seems as if any item orfunction we can think of in AutoCAD is anobject itself, a group of objects, or an activ-ity to be performed on an object, or finallya property of an object or group of objects.This is where we want to be in our under-standing. And with a mature object modelwe should be able to find a method (activi-ty), a property (content or informationstate), or an object or group of objects toaccomplish anything we could accomplishmanually inside of AutoCAD.
There is one aspect of object modelsthat we haven’t explored yet: the conceptof events. An event is anything that can besaid to have happened. Objects can reactto things that have happened. This is theheart of automation and what differenti-ates VBA from some other programminglanguages. Events are at the heart of VBAand the object model, and AutoCAD hasenabled many objects with the ability toreact to events. In fact, with a beginner’s
understanding of events one can createnew events to which objects can react. Theapplication object has events, so do thedocuments (drawings), and many moresub-objects found in AutoCAD.
In summary, the objects, groups ofobjects, properties, and activities availablein an application are divided among theobjects in the object model. Basically, theobjects in the object model’s hierarchy rep-resent all the properties or functionalityprovided by the application that is exposedto Visual Basic for Applications.Individually, these objects provide access tovery specific properties and/or functionality.To discover or change a property or state ofan object, you get or set one of the object’scharacteristics. To perform an action on orwith an object, you use one of the object’smethods. Some objects also provide eventsthat are triggered by a reaction to some dis-crete happening or action, so we can writecode that will run in response.
As always, use the online help to furtherexplore these concepts as necessary.Download the longer version of this arti-cle, the tenth in the twelve-part VBA
series, to get more in-depth treatment and“hands-on” examples of these concepts.The “full length” versions of the articles inthis series are available for downloading athttp://www.augi.com/educate/publica-tions/paperspace/psdownload.asp.
If you are really stumped, please send inyour questions to the VBA Guild or to meat [email protected]. See you on theGuilds or in the next issue of Augiworld.
Richard L. Binning is theCADD Coordinator for theHaskell Company inJacksonville, Florida,where he acts as a liaisonbetween the InformationTechnology Department
user groups and functional departments,and Upper Management. Richard also coor-dinates and conducts in-house training andmanages large-scale, offsite training forCADD users. He oversees the automationand customization of AutoCAD for 120CADD users at Haskell, and is also an adjunctfaculty member at the Technology Instituteof the South, his local ATC.
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PaperSpace
w w w . a u g i . c o m22
AutoLISP: Not an ‘All Or Nothing’ChoiceDo you use AutoLISP at command line
in your day-to-day work? Many AutoCADusers feel that using AutoLISP is an all ornothing choice. They tend to think that touse AutoLISP (or programming in general),you need a very big task — such as generat-ing the whole drawing — that requires daysof programming by an expert. This need notnecessarily be the case. In this article, wewill examine a practical example of how youcan use AutoLISP at command line to sim-plify a complex task that results in improvedproductivity. Note that AutoLISP has anadvantage here over VBA. You cannot do itwith VBA.
The Problem: One of my clients createsdrawings of gauge panels for large plants.A panel normally has more than 50 gaugesof various types and sizes. A frequent prob-lem he faces is that the hole (circle) sizeschange at least a couple of times before thedesign is finalized. How does he ensurethat changes are done globally, positively,and repeatedly without the need to indi-vidually reselect the circles?
The problem, thus, can be split into two parts:
1) How to select the objects, using mul-tiple criteria, more easily?
2) How to make this selection reusablefor the future?
Consider the simple case of two types ofgauges: Pressure gauges in two sizesrequiring 50 mm and 25 mm radius holeson the gauge panel (see figure 1), and tem-
perature gauges requiring 25 mm and 37.5mm radius holes. Also assume that thereare ten each of these. Let’s try the task ofselecting the circles with 25 mm radius used for only temperature gauges
and saving this selection for possible reuse in future.
Part 1: Creating A ComplexSelection Set
The solution to the first part of the prob-lem is to create a complex selection set,one that needs to satisfy more than one cri-terion (two in this case).
The Manual Solution. The straightfor-ward solution would be to manually selectall the required circles by clicking on eachof them after ensuring that:• its radius is 25 and • it is used for a temperature gauge.
You will quickly realize the impracticali-ty of this solution, especially if the numberof objects to be selected is large and youhave other similar objects from which tochoose. For example, you need to differ-entiate the two types of circles — forTemperature and Pressure gauges — ofsame size.
Of course, using different layers doeshelp in simplifying the task of selection.The layer for temperature gauges(“LRTG”), however, will still contain twosizes of circles. You will need to differenti-ate them visually during the selectionprocess — in the worst case by verifyingproperties if the sizes are within a closerange. The task of choosing the circles ofcorrect size and type thus remains timeconsuming and taxing to the user’s eye.
The ‘Filter’ Solution. Using the ‘filter’command, you can create“reusable filters to select objectsbased on properties.” To create aselection filter list, you need to add‘select filter’ — one for each prop-erty — to the filter list using the‘Object Selection Filters’ dialogdisplayed by the ‘filter’ command.
In our case, the required filterlist will include the following three filters:
Object = CircleCircle Radius = 25Layer = LRTG
You can create the selection set usingthe filter command either at the commandprompt or transparently inside an editingcommand. You can name and save the fil-ter permanently. It is saved in the applica-
tion and can be applied in any drawingopened subsequently. However, you needto set the filter current and then applyevery time from inside the filter dialog.
The ‘qselect’ Solution. AutoCAD pro-vides another tool — “qselect” — that youcan use for creating a complex selectionset. You can also use it either at commandline or from within the Properties dialogbox, which displays a button for this tool. Itcan’t be used transparently inside an edit-ing command, though.
In this case, you can create the requiredselection set using the qselect commandtwice. The first qselect creates a selectionset of all 25 radius holes in the drawing.The second time, qselect removes fromthis selection set all those circles not lyingon the ‘LRTG’ layer. (SeeUsingQselectForComplexSsets.doc on thePaperSpace download page athttp://www.augi.com/educate/publica-tions/paperspace/psdownload.asp.)
This may not seem simple, but is cer-tainly easier than selecting each circle indi-vidually. The selection set, then, can besubsequently used in an editing commandusing the ‘Previous’ selection option.
The AutoLISP Solution. The task of cre-ating a complex selection set can furtherbe simplified using selection set filter listsin an AutoLISP command. A single com-mand, like the one below, will create therequired selection set.
Command: (ssget “_X” ‘((0 . “CIRCLE”)(40 . 25) (8 . “LRTG”)))
Part 2: Making a SelectionSet Reusable — The‘Group’ Solution
You can create a selection set using anyone of the above methods. This selection set,however, is volatile. It can be subsequentlyselected with the ‘Previous’ option only aslong as another one is not created. One of the methods you can use to permanently store a selection set, and selectit directly as a command option, is to save itin a group. (See UsingGroupToSaveselectionset.doc on the PaperSpace download page.)A group is saved in a drawing and is availableover sessions.
You can save a selection set in a groupusing two different ways:
Figure 1
• Create the selection set transparentlyinside ‘Group’ command using ‘filter’command, or
• Create the selection set independentlyand save it in a group using the‘Previous’ selection option.AutoLISP again provides a single line
solution:Command: (command “-group” “c”
“TG” “” (ssget “_X” ‘((0 . “CIRCLE”) (40 .25) (8 . “LRTG”))) “”)
You can now respond to a ‘SelectObject:’ prompt with ‘g’ (for group) and then ‘TG’ to select all the objects inthe complex selection set (see figure 2).
As we have seen, usingAutoLISP need not require a bigtask. We can accomplish small butcomplex routine tasks, like creat-ing a multiple selection set, usingAutoLISP interactively (at thecommand prompt). This can saveus a lot of hassle and time, result-ing in increased productivity.
AutoLISP, after all, does not needto be an “all or nothing” choice!
Sanjay Kulkarni is an AutoLISP pro-grammer and AutoCAD trainer fromIndia. Sanjay can be reached [email protected].
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M a r / A p r 2 0 0 3 23
Manipulating AutoCAD Objects With AutoLISP
Manipulating AutoCAD objects withAutoLISP can be very interesting. It offersyou many capabilities to access and man-age AutoCAD objects. Let’s use it to solvea practical problem. A few days ago Ireceived an e-mail from an AutoCADinstructor as follows:
I teach an AutoCAD class at a local technical
school and am preparing to grade some final
drawing projects. Several students seem to have
a problem with drawing [orthographic] lines or
maybe they are snapping to the wrong Osnap or
something. What I am looking for, and have not
been successful in creating myself, is a lisp routine
that finds all lines that are not drawn at 0, 90, 180,
or 270. That way I could easily see which lines
were not [orthographic]. I have tried using DXF
dotted pairs, but lines do not seem to have a dot-
ted pair for angle (only x, y, z) changes. Any help
or direction you could provide would be greatly
appreciated.
Basic InformationEvery AutoCAD object is
defined with a series of DXFcodes. Based on AutoCAD help,the DXF format is a tagged datarepresentation of all the informa-tion contained in an AutoCADdrawing file. Tagged data meansthat each data element in the fileis preceded by an integer numberthat is called a group code. Agroup code’s value indicates whattype of data element follows. Thisvalue also indicates the meaning
of a data element for a given object (orrecord) type. Virtually all user-specifiedinformation in a drawing file can be repre-sented in DXF format.
The DXF codes associated to an objectare kept within a list. Such lists are calledassociated lists. Here is a sample associat-ed list for a line that starts from the originand ends to 3,2.
((-1 . <Entity name: 4007dd58>) (0 .LINE) (330 . <Entity name: 4007dcf8>) (5. 2B) (100 . AcDbEntity) (67 . 0) (410 .Model) (8 . 0) (100 . AcDbLine) (10 0.0 0.00.0) (11 3.0 2.0 0.0) (210 0.0 0.0 1.0))
Don’t panic! Although the list is compli-cated, there are some AutoLISP functionsto handle it. Let me explain some of the elements.
(0 . LINE) indicates the type of object.DXF code 0 is always used for this pur-pose. DXF codes 10 and 11 are used to
specify the start point and end point of theline. Back to the problem: notice that wehave the start and end point of the line, notits angle and length.
Building A SolutionHere we want to make a selection set.
Selection sets are created with ssget func-tion. You can combine ssget with DXF codes to filter the selected objects.For example, the following code selects allthe lines within current space: (ssget “X”‘((0 . “LINE”))
Since we are looking for oblique lines,we should filter the current selection set.
To filter the selection set, we need aseries of functions: ssadd to build a newselection set or add an object to an existingone, sslength to retrieve the number ofelements in a selection set, and ssname toget the name of the objects within theselection set. For instance, (setq ename(ssname ss 0)) extracts the name of the firstentity in the ss selection set and assigns thename to ename variable.
Later we can use entget function toretrieve the list of DXF codes belonging tothe object. The assoc function will help usto extract data associated to DXF codes.For example, (setq elist (entget ename))assigns the list of DXF codes to elist vari-able. Thus (setq pt1 (cdr (assoc 10 ss)))assigns the coordinates of the start point ofthe line to pt1 variable.
Figure 2
(continued on page 22)
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w w w . a u g i . c o m24
Final SolutionThe following steps can solve the problem:Build a selection set that contains all lines
within the current space of the drawing.Build a new and empty selection set.Revise every single member of the old
selection set. Calculate the angle of theline by extracting the start and end point.
If the angle of the line is not equal to 0,90, 180, or 270 degrees, add it to the newselection set.
I have prepared a program named“Oblique Lines.LSP” that managesoblique lines. You can download it fromthe AUGI web site athttp://www.augi.com/educate/publica-tions/paperspace/psdownload.asp orhttp://www.geocities.com/cad_tips/down-
loads.htm. It defines two commands:MOL and TOL. MOL can be used toselect and/or modify oblique lines. TOL isuseful to verify whether the selected line isoblique or straight.
Alireza Parsai ([email protected]) is amechanical engineer andAutoCAD instructor. Hismajor interest is AutoCADcustomization techniquesand has used and cus-tomized every version of
AutoCAD software since 1991. He has writtenseveral books and articles about AutoCAD inboth Farsi and English. His English-languagearticles are published in PaperSpace,where heis a contributing editor.
Viewports can be great —I am just not sure I am a realfan of having too much infor-mation on my model andhaving to manage two ormore different dimensionlayers on top of each other. Ialso do not always have thedrawing xref’ed when I needto have another view for adetail, for example. So clip-ping out some things maynot be something I can do toget the section of the draw-ing I need in view. Withthese types of things con-fronting me I discovered achance for a little creativitywith viewports.
To demonstrate one tech-nique that I have used tomanipulate drawing infor-mation in viewports, I willshow you a section of ahouse with a stair comingdown from a deck. The piersfor the deck and the piersfor the stairs were so closethat the dimensions wereoverlapping. To make thingsmore readable I separatedthe piers for the stairs out to anotherplace in model space and dimensionedthem there. I then needed to overlap
them with the post from thestairs and also the area ofthe deck to show relation-ship. If this had been xref’ed I could have justmade a copy and done anxclip on it. In Figure #1 youcan see the original, con-gested area for this example.Figure #2 shows the desireddimensions and details forthe footings and piers forthe stair post. The trick is getting there.
By creating anotherdimension layer — Dim2 forexample — I allow myself achance for turning offdimension around the postand dimensioning them as Ineed it. I can also add theother information related totheir foundations. I thenmove this information alongwith the dimension off toanother part of my modelspace. Just make sure tomove it a distance that youcan remember and use —say 50'. Figure #3 shows theinformation that I will even-
tually want to show with the post. This isthe information that I have moved over 50'.
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
(continued on page 26)
Command Spotlight
(continued from page 23)
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PaperSpace
To get these two sections of drawingmerged in paperspace took a little creativeviewport action. To start with I had to makea “viewport” shape of just what I wanted tosee from the original drawing with the postand deck pier section. This shape needed tofit around the original viewport in a cornerof the paperspace area.
Starting in modelspace, I used a polylineto outline the area of the drawing needed.I copied this polyline over 50' to make surethat it would also encompass the dimen-sioned area I want. I then went to paper-space. I made sure the new polyline wasshowing in the original viewport. Clickinginto the viewport I used the Express Tool — Layout Tools — Change Space tobring the polyline into paperspace in theoriginal position of around the desired area.
Now that I have the shape in paperspaceit can be transformed into a viewport.Using the VPORT command or the buttonoff the Viewports toolbar that will allowconverting polylines into viewports doesthis. (See Figure #4) The next step would
be to freeze alllayers relatedto the originald i m e n s i o n sand any others
not desired in this viewport. Move it to thecorner of the paperspace where it is toremain. (When you convert a polyline to aviewport it keeps the polyline in paper-space. Be aware of this when selecting theviewport to move, change layer, etc.)
Now the other polyline will have to besent to paperspace so that it can bechanged into a viewport. You have to be in paperspace to change space on anobject. You may have to go into anotherviewport and pan it around to where youcan see the polyline so that it can bechanged to paperspace.
Once the polyline has been changed topaperspace you just have to line the twoviewports on top of each other. This allowsyou to view both viewports with yourdrawing and dimensions aligned. InFigure #5 I have taken the polylines that
were around the viewports and given thema thickness so that they can be seen here.Here you can see the post in the originalviewport and the post in the second view-port. The third viewport with the postdimensions overlays the second viewportand can be seen as well.
Command Spotlight and Hint are submitted by Donnia Tabor-Hanson, AUGIBoard Member.
Figure 4
Figure 5
Stacking text in MTEXT has severaloptions that can be very useful once youfind what they are. You can create frac-tions with a horizontal or a diagonal line.You can also create superscript or sub-script text using MTEXT. All you have toknow is the character used to create theoption you wish, where to place the character in the text, how to change tostacked text, and how to manage thestacked text properties.
To make a fraction using a horizontalline, place the character “/” between thetwo numbers. An example would be “1/2”for this. Making a fraction using a diagonalline would use the character “#” betweenthe two numbers. So “1#4” could be con-verted to a stacked diagonal fraction.
The superscript and subscript use thesame character. It depends where youplace it as to where you text will go. Thecharacter “^” is used for this. If placedbehind the character and then stacked youwill get superscript. Placing this characterin front of the desired text will allow you to
create a sub-script.
Figure #6shows you theprepped textfor each exam-ple. By high-lighting the textto change andusing the right-click menu, youshould be ableto stack each tosee the desiredoptions. Figure#7 shows eachoptions of thestacked text.
Figure #8shows how youcan manipulatethe propertiesof the text youhave created.To bring up this
dialog box just highlight the text use theright-click menu to get to “Properties.”This is great for increasing the size, chang-ing position, or the style.
Hint
(continued from page 24)
Figure 6
Figure 7
Figure 8
M a r / A p r 2 0 0 3 27
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The CADozoec EraSome of you may not realize this, but
Autodesk did not invent CAD. BeforeAutodesk was a viable company, there wereseveral major players in the CAD market. Inthe late `70s and early `80s, CAD encom-passed a variety of acronyms, CAD-CAM,CADD, CADDS, but it was all extremetechnology. Only major corporations couldafford it. When I started usingComputervision CADDS-4X, the system weworked on had a CPU that was roughlyequivalent to today’s Pentium 3, but therewas no Intel Corporation. It had 64megabytes of RAM.
The amazing part is that 12 users werehitting that one CPU, not in a server/clientarrangement mind you, but an actual CPUsharing design. Nobody in the CAD busi-ness talks about “mainframes” anymore, butthis was a mainframe. It was all they knewhow to do back then, “AND WE LIKEDIT” (there, I finally said it…).
A Billion Here, a Billion There…The CAD Center was stand-alone
accounting entity within the company. It wascalled a “zero cost center”, a laughable termconsidering the hardware alone was valuedat almost $4 mil, and our technical supportcontract alone (training not included) forthose 12 seats was almost $300k annually,and that’s in 1985 dollars. The accountingprocess was that our internal projects werebilled between $50 and $75 per hour to usethe CAD system. The projects then billedtheir external clients, which were usuallylarge government agencies, universities, orbig aerospace companies. Theoretically thiswould result in the CAD Center being “zerocost” to the company. Somehow it neverreally turned out that way.
One sunny day on the way to the CADcenter, I noticed three palettes just outsidethe door. A box on the palette had beenopened and a more familiar package hadbeen exposed. I soon realized that there wasprobably a ton of plotting paper sitting onthe back steps. I had never seen it in thisform or quantity before. There were alwaysa few rolls stacked in the plotting room.
Our only hardcopy device was a 36-inchelectrostatic plotter, capable of 200 dpi, mono-
chrome of course, with a dot size just a tadsmaller than a .05mm Pentel pencil. Whenyou ran a plot, there were about 12 inches ofblank space before and after each image. Thepaper cutoff device was a very crude manuallyoperated wire thingy that no one ever reallymastered. You always stood a good chance oftrashing your plot when you tried to use thatthing. The 12 inches of dead paper often camein handy. It took two to three minutes from hit-ting Enter to cutting off the plot.
Our document management departmenthad always purchased high-quality rag vel-lum for the drafting department. They hadnot yet come to understand the nature of aCAD plot. They continued to insist on buy-ing only top-quality vellum, thinking thatevery plot was an original that had to survive50 years in a file drawer. When I asked ourCAD manager how much we spent on plot-ting paper annually, his answer was $91k, in1985 dollars.
For a D size plot, five linear feet came offthe three-foot-wide roll (three for the imageand one each for the blank leader and trail-er), equaling 15 square feet of paper. Whenwe cut out the two by three foot image wethrew the remaining 9 sq. ft. (60 percent)into the trash. Multiply $91k by 60 percentand you get $54,600 worth of paper everyyear that spun off the roll, across the room,and directly into the trash.
Presentations were made with view-graphs, letter-size transparencies that thepresenter (or his assistant) manually placedon an overhead projector one at a time. Wedid not have a letter-size output device.Power Point was not even a concept becauseBill Gates was still in high school. Laserprinters were just entering the market, butCV had no stated plans to support them.
Design reviews, which occurred almostdaily for one project or another, created aflurry of plotter output. Many times theplotter was backed up for hours at a time.You would issue your plot command, thencheck with the CAD technician to seewhere you were in the plotting queue. Wewould often use three or four 100-foot rollsa day. It was not uncommon to see a fewdozen letter-size images with a foot of blankspace between them along the edge of a
three-foot roll about 100 feet long. Manytimes we worked into the evening with theExacto knife, trashing five square feet ofpaper for every letter size viewgraph.
Tech Support, Pastries, and BeerThe reason CAD has moved to a distrib-
uted computing model over the years ispartly because when a software patch wasrequired or a circuit board burned up on amainframe, everybody had to stop working.
Our tech support person was a tall slen-der gentleman named Tim. He alwayssmiled and was quiet but personable. Hewas the CV employee responsible for keep-ing our CAD hardware and software opera-tional. Whenever you saw Tim, you knewthere was some downtime in the very nearfuture, especially if he was carrying a bigcardboard box. When I learned what Tim’sservices cost the company, I suggested thatwhen he came to visit us, depending uponthe time of day, he should bring us pastriesfor our coffee break, or beer to wrap up theday’s work. This suggestion was wellreceived by my colleagues, but it nevercame to be.
A few minutes after Tim arrived (fromwhere he came we never knew) a messagewould appear on the screen, always in caps.“FILE YOUR PARTS!!! THE SYSTEMWILL BE DOWN FOR APPROXIMATE-LY TWO HOURS STARTING IN FIVEMINUTES.” It was kind of like when yourplane finally stops at the gate and the seat-belt light goes off. Everybody piled out oftheir cubicles and headed for the door.
Calling All CADosaursAugiworld is a user-to-user magazine. I
invite any and all of you CAD dinosaurs outthere to send me a paragraph or two aboutyour favorite CAD memories (or night-mares). Don’t worry about your style, we’llpretty it up if need be. I’ll keep your nameconfidential or give you credit if you like.Thanks for your e-mails.
David Kingsley is the creator of CADPlayerStreamed On Demand CAD Courseware(www.cadplayer.com) and currently serves onthe AUGI Board of Directors. He can bereached at [email protected].
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David Kingsley
Back InThe Day
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